Little Things I Really Appreciated and Some Dislikes
booinyoureyes
Member Posts: 6,164
There are a couple small things I wanted to give feedback on, which I really enjoyed
1. Making Baldur's Gate feel like a city. The people walking around, crowding the streets, really adds authenticity to the environment. This becomes especially interesting with the backdrop of a refugee crisis.
2. The voice acting for most of the original characters. Bringing back my man Jim Cummings for Minsc was huge. Edwin and Dynaheir were done excellently as well. Safana was a little off from the original, but the quality was still great.
3. New voice acting: awesome. Baeloth is just a consistently perfectly voiced character. Amazing job on him. Rasaad is also great, as usual. The new NPCs are very well voiced as well (haven't met Voghiln yet)
4. The battles are really fun. It is Icewind Dale style, and I love the large crowds they have gone with. Nothing says epic like being outnumbered. From the first dungeon on, it has been great so far.
5. Portraits are great. Caelar and all the new NPCs are very well done. Viconia and Imoen's updated portraits are also on point.
6. Old friends are well worked into the story, even those that don't join you. I loved Garrick and Coran's cameos, both very true to how the characters have been portrayed. Also, Tiax was funny.
7. It was intentional, considering how long the game was in production, but with the refugee crisis and Caelar's Crusade, it reminds me of ISIS/ISIL and the issues with Syrian refugees to this day. The issues are very relatable and I'm excited to see how it plays out.
8. Graphics updates and convenience features. The game looks and feels beautiful. I love the outlining, and I even like the healthbars. Most importantly: a lot of this was made optional. If you don't like it you can turn it off. That is a great compromise, allowing people more choices.
A couple negatives:
1. I don't like that hitting "Enter" doesn't close item description screens.
2. It is annoying to have to click "next" after picking a base class then having to click it again after for picking a kit. It is needlessly time consuming compared to the old game. I know my generation is an impatient one, but it is one change that made things worse than in the original game.
3. I personally would have liked more kits, but that's just me. Minor complaint, and a bit spoiled, but hey, I would have like another option for rangers, paladins or bards (all my faves).
4. I wish there was space for a thieving skills action on the toolbar for cleric/thieves. It is making Glint a little hard to use.
1. Making Baldur's Gate feel like a city. The people walking around, crowding the streets, really adds authenticity to the environment. This becomes especially interesting with the backdrop of a refugee crisis.
2. The voice acting for most of the original characters. Bringing back my man Jim Cummings for Minsc was huge. Edwin and Dynaheir were done excellently as well. Safana was a little off from the original, but the quality was still great.
3. New voice acting: awesome. Baeloth is just a consistently perfectly voiced character. Amazing job on him. Rasaad is also great, as usual. The new NPCs are very well voiced as well (haven't met Voghiln yet)
4. The battles are really fun. It is Icewind Dale style, and I love the large crowds they have gone with. Nothing says epic like being outnumbered. From the first dungeon on, it has been great so far.
5. Portraits are great. Caelar and all the new NPCs are very well done. Viconia and Imoen's updated portraits are also on point.
6. Old friends are well worked into the story, even those that don't join you. I loved Garrick and Coran's cameos, both very true to how the characters have been portrayed. Also, Tiax was funny.
7. It was intentional, considering how long the game was in production, but with the refugee crisis and Caelar's Crusade, it reminds me of ISIS/ISIL and the issues with Syrian refugees to this day. The issues are very relatable and I'm excited to see how it plays out.
8. Graphics updates and convenience features. The game looks and feels beautiful. I love the outlining, and I even like the healthbars. Most importantly: a lot of this was made optional. If you don't like it you can turn it off. That is a great compromise, allowing people more choices.
A couple negatives:
1. I don't like that hitting "Enter" doesn't close item description screens.
2. It is annoying to have to click "next" after picking a base class then having to click it again after for picking a kit. It is needlessly time consuming compared to the old game. I know my generation is an impatient one, but it is one change that made things worse than in the original game.
3. I personally would have liked more kits, but that's just me. Minor complaint, and a bit spoiled, but hey, I would have like another option for rangers, paladins or bards (all my faves).
4. I wish there was space for a thieving skills action on the toolbar for cleric/thieves. It is making Glint a little hard to use.
Post edited by booinyoureyes on
17
Comments
Getting more of Minsc, Imo and Viconia alone would do it for me, but even the original narrator... What sensation of joy and nostalgia it was to hear him!
My favorite thing: introducing that evil mage in this story. I love the voice acting and the character. Really brilliant idea!
Wish he had been a party member option.
I totally dig Rob Paulsen (who also voices Ano and Morte) and Kivan was my favorite character and best archer in original campaign. Better still if he had been made romance option... in view of him being a tragic widower it could really have made for some interesting story twists.
Positive
1. My PC is voiced by David Freakin' Warner. That alone is awesome
2. Imoen was handled very nicely. I loved how they showed her learning magic, and her dialogue was great and very much in BG1 Imoen character.
Negative:
I did not like how characters "didn't recognize" you. It seemed like a lazy way to add ambiguity for people who maybe didn't meet these characters in Baldur's Gate 1, and kinda broke immersion especially when I started the game with some of them in my party. The original Shadows of Amn did similar things with Edwin and Viconia though, so it is somewhat consistent with the originals, but I'm still not a fan of the method. I will do so, but only after I finished the game once. I don't want to review it too early, and with the Culture War being so front and center at the moment. I ant to be able to judge the game without feeling the need to react to other people's reviews.
*A Rainbow Arrow connects with the message!*
I have been able to sneak in the first catacomb dungeon today, but normally only get to go on adventures in the late evenings once the sun has gone down.
Here are a few little things I have enjoyed, and a note on what I have not, the latter more of annoyances and game preferences.
+ If one has SoD:EE installed, and one defeats Saravok, the new expansion automatically loads and jumps you right into the next stage of your adventure.
+ SoD:EE keeps track of your progress from Candlekeep up to the death of Saravok, making it easy to reflect and review particular stages of your adventure.
+ It's not a clean slate. You bring with you what you have on you once Saravok is defeated.
+ Soundtrack!
+ The lighting, sound and design of the catacombs are visually enjoyable; there is a polish to it.
+ An NPC named Ammon made me think about what it is she asks of you before departing. It made me reflect upon my character's personality, compared to simply being a fetch quest. There could be consequences involved (that's how I felt when reading the options).
- Although I enjoyed having the entire party and their gear imported, I'm not sure what becomes of Imoen's gear at the start of SoD. I actually reloaded my final save, stripped her of all the gear and distributed to other party members to give it all to Safana.
- The pointers on Undead, mentioned twice by Imoen, I felt was not required.
- Additional help provided by Imoen and the Fist guards did not make me feel heroic at all. I dealt a deathly blow to Saravok. Their help would have been more useful in previous chapters
- Equipment strip at the end of the catacombs being dumped into one single chest. GAH! I'd rather have individual chests next to each individual bed that represents a member of the party, where their gear can be found. When a new party is formed, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time looking at each item and drag/dropping around.
That's all I've got so far, brave warriors!
Until next time.
RAWR!
She was completely rude the entire time. Not just in the actual written dialogue, but she is voiced. But then, out of nowhere, she says something exceedingly polite after I offer to help her. Which would be fine, if she didn't go right back to being rude again.
For some reason this random polite line wasn't voiced like almost the rest of hers. It just seemed completely out of place. She goes from treating you like the scum of the Earth to calling you "my lord". I get maybe she likes paladins, but that doesn't really jive with her later behavior.
I'll add a picture. Pink for emphasis
Obviously not a big complaint, just something I found weird and wanted to share.
You make a really good point about this being a refugee story, with some pretty heavy themes and ISIL parallels. Makes you wonder about the people complaining about a certain 'political' agenda being pushed... hmmm... Maybe I shouldn't give them ideas? Or maybe they're just super selective with what they see as political?
1. Voicing was a nice surprise. Firstly that returning characters got any voiceacting at all, but Neera's voiceacting only seems to get better with each new release.
2. New items! Items always make me giddy. I took one look at 'that' katana and I thought: "I want this in BG2." I don't care if it isn't imported, I'll mod it in myself.
3. OMG situations where you don't have to fight through everything (but you can anyway). Bonus points for that.
4.
5. M'Khiin. Is it just me, or is she positively huggable?
6. Class-specific dialog is always a nice touch, and there seemed to be a lot particularly for a bard PC.
7.
8.
Dislikes
1. I played on Insane difficulty for most of the game before I got tired of the ridiculous enemy spawns and tuned it down. It became a repetitive sequence of bombarding enemies with AoE because engaging them was suicide. This was partially my own fault because I ran a party without a tank but honestly I didn't feel it made the game harder in a fun way.
2. I am getting frequent ctds mostly from minimizing and I have no idea whether it's actual issues with the game or if I only have myself to blame.
3. Romances were... I dunno how to put it. Nothing against the writing, as the ones I've experienced were fairly decent. However, I ended up with Glint completely by accident. I think the pacing is off, as well as the options for turning them down not being obvious enough.
4. Spiders. Damn those spiders.
5. Portraits were not my cup of tea. They're fine on their own and capture the characters well but I could notice the difference in art style and Glint's portrait had bad proportions.
6. The climax was a bit too rushed.
Positives:
1. Glint. He is my homeboy. Kindred spirits, he and I. I feel this is the beginning of a long friendship.
2. Finished the Temple of Cyric and LOVED it. Great set up, and the backstory (which I presume is about Gorion) was very interesting. The best parts were the battles though. They felt more like Icewind Dale than Baldur's Gate (which is a huge compliment) and the diversity was incredible. I really appreciated being a cavalier, I must say. I may not have survived otherwise! I liked having an easier dragon early on in the series.
3. I also appreciated the two new creatures, which I never saw before (the dragon's sister and that crazy monster that came out of the ground... forgot the name). They both looked great.
4. Khalid's voice acting. Don't know if it was the same guy, but whoever it was nailed it.
5. The loot. It rules.
Negatives
1. I like Neera, but I also agree with some of the criticisms about her voice and the use of modernisms. I felt this was particularly bad when you first meet her in SoD, and I wasn't very fond of the way that scene was acted. Not taking her this run, though, so can't comment further.
There is often no chance for any real tactics with these, just to hope that you can fire off your crowd control spells before your casters get rushed.
4, Khalid's original voice actor, Jim Meskimen, returned to the character for Siege.
1. The voice acting for most of the original characters. Pity about not finding Hidi, but we can't have it all can we?
2. The new NPC's voice are well, I like Glint voice really fit him.
3. Graphics updates and the continue work on them to try bring them to the max as posibble without redoing all the spirits.
4. From the new companion I like mostly Glint and M'Khiin they have special way to see thing and add to the game for me a lot, well done writing.
5. I like the fact that some old NPC's does join on this trip even if most are mandatory story wise.
6. I also agree about the class-specific dialog that is always nice and add to the story wise make it more real.
What I didn't really like
1. I agree with boo on Glint about a little hard to use with the thieving skills action, I know it can be use in a hot key but still.
2. I don't really care for the huge black border around the map, or the change to the viewing map clicking to world map/ area map (but that I guess is something one need to get use to tho the old way was better)
3. I didn't like those big fights that it seem like endless enemies and the use of fireballs seem like the only way to kill them all (if you don't run with a lot of tankers or first line fighter which aren't much around unless you take in a good run the cannon NPC's )
4. Again I agree the end chapters were a bit rush and the whole game of not being able to go back to areas that you left already felt like limiting the game.
5. Romance option for females are lacking, I mean not enough options for romance for my test
6. what bother me is that the "main" thief that was chosen for the game is Safana, not everyone like Safana in fact I didn't like her in BG1 nor do I like her in SOD and the only other thief is Glint that come later in the game ( I like Glint I really do but he is a multi class that I for one don't need as I mostly play as a cleric / druid myself ) or playing thief myself which I hardly do.
7. The thing I disappointed the most is the lack of more old Npc's joining this expedition!!! like Alora, Yeslick and well Kivan could have being nice touch but mostly Alora who doesn't get to shine in BG1 unless you mod her to meet earlier in the game, and she is a thief that can fit to be instead of Safana, and much more fitting replacement for Imoen IMHO.
8. The dialog box, not being able to just scroll up, there is a need to click to open it to see older stuff and the scrolling, this add button seem unnecessary to me.